


The Mystery of the Ghosts in the Library

by OutrageousIngeniousBrilliance (sublimeWaves)



Series: 25 Prompt Challenge [13]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, Books, F/F, F/M, Gen, Ghosts, Love, Sadstuck, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 09:02:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1812820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sublimeWaves/pseuds/OutrageousIngeniousBrilliance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Books are like ghosts... the Curious will seek them out, but only the Ones that open their Hearts will truly understand them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Specter: Definition: n, a ghost

John is known as the good kid.  He does his homework and chores, does no drugs or alcohol, and was the perfect model kid.  Any parent would be proud to have him as their son. 

He didn’t have many friends, but he was best friends with three.  Dave, Rose, and Jade kept him grounded, but at sixteen something changed to the group of four.  The four of them got jobs and didn’t see each other as much as they used to.  Rose was at a coffee shop, Dave at a mechanics, Jade at a retail shop, and John worked for the library. 

More precisely, John worked at a warehouse downtown where he catalogued the new books that came into the library system.  There were wows and rows of books, shitty fluorescent lights, and John, alone, in the dark.  There were no windows in the warehouse, no other people, so it basically qualified as a prison. 

It was the end of his shift on the first week that he heard something weird.  In between one of the shelves, as John passed by, there was a giggle.  It was a small crackle that scared the hell out of John.  It made him jump and remember that he was alone.  He chalked it up to something in his head brought on by the scary movie that Dave made him watch. 

Then, the next week he heard a high pitched giggle and the whispers started a day after that.  They talked all of the time and John was sure he was going insane.  As the voices got louder he could make out a distinct twelve of them.  He couldn’t’ make out any words until he heard only one near the back of the warehouse. 

John, fed up with this voice business, goes to investigate the paranormal activity.  He vaguely wonders if he needs a video camera of a shitty quality like all those horror movies used.  A low peek around a shelf and there is a boy, someone who is John’s age, sitting on the floor reading a book.  The boy hunches over in his grey sweatshirt, jeans, and messy black hair.  His eyes have massive bags under them and John would judge some type of Spanish ethnicity. 

“Who are you?”  John asks, making himself known.  The boy looks up from his book. 

“’Who are you?’”  The boy mocks.  “Wow, what a way to introduce yourself, fuckass.  How about some fucking common courtesy, John.”

  _What the?_  

“How do you know my name” John asks, freaked out. 

“Okay, ignore everything I just fucking said.”  The boy sounded exasperated.  “Well, John, it is pretty obvious how I know your name” This makes the blue eyed boy more confused.  “Fuck, you’re dense.”

  “Yeah, John, take a hint!”  A girl’s voice, nice but over exaggerating, comes from the shelf next to him.  From the shelves, _through the fucking shelves_ , comes a girl or a ghost if _going through the shelves_ means anything. 

The girl has long black hair, ratty clothes, a mischievous smile, and nice assets (not that John is looking).  John just stares, trying to process what is going on. 

“I think you scared him.’  A soothing girl’s voice from begin John sounds.  A full one hundred and eighty degrees and ten more teenagers appear and they were definitely not there a second ago.  One, the soothing voice girl with short black hair and a sharp face, gently takes John’s arm and leads him down the walkway between shelves and walks. 

“My name is Kanaya, John, and you know that we are ghosts.”  Kanaya looks over to the terrified John.  “I know it is a lot to take in.”  John nods in agreement, not trusting himself to speak and tries to say the first thing that into his head that isn’t stupid. 

“How are you ghosts?”  He manages to get out.  The girl sighs. 

“About a year ago there was a fire at the National Writing Convention in New York.  All the winners in the youth category died, all twelve of us.  So, then we became ghosts.  Our souls then binded to a book of the genre we wrote for the convention.  We can’t go far from our books and our books were sent here.  We’ve been here, in an abandoned building, since it suits our purposes the best.  We can talk to each other and do as we want as we please.” 

After a minute of information absorption, John smiles in understanding.  He had heard about the Convention and how it had killed almost a hundred people. 

“That is so cool!  What genre are you?”  The girl blushes slightly and turns away from him. 

“Paranormal Romance.”  The blue eyed realized the implications of that statement rather quickly as the situation they were in and looked back at the others.  Most of the others were talking amongst themselves except for the two kids he met earlier walking over to him. 

“So, John, has fussyfangs told you all the boring shit yet?”  The girl asks in a bored tone. 

“Yeah, it’s so cool you’re all ghosts.”  He cocks his head to the side.  “Who’s fussy fangs?” 

The girl laughs.  “Kanaya is fussy and likes vampires.” 

“Since you’ve been watching me, you know I am John, so who are you?” 

“Vriska Serket, writer of Adventure Epics.”  Vriska flips her hair over her shoulder.  “I’m probably the best writer here.”  ‘Probably’ was held an abnormal amount of time as John waited for her to finish.

“Way to be a pompous bitch in the first five minutes of meeting someone.”  The boy says as Vriska narrows her eyes. 

“Whatever, Romance boy.”  John looked over to the boy, who he deemed confrontational due to his tone of voice and definitely not someone who wrote about romantic rendezvous. 

“Romance?”

“Yes Romance, best damn genre out there.  I’m Karkat.”  The boy introduced himself.  John smiles at his new found friends.  Vriska, smiles back, cocky, and Karkat responds with a frown.  

A ring comes from John’s pocket.  After fishing his phone from his pocket and a quick “Where are you?”  from his Dad, John remembers  the time and must leave.  He says a hasty goodbye before leaving. 

“Will you still be here tommarrow?”  He calls.

Vriska answers.  “I think we can all stick around until then.”


	2. Candid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Candid - adj, 1) truthful and straightforward; frank. 2) taken informally, esp. without the subject’s knowledge

It takes about three minutes after meeting the twelve ghosts that John’s obsession over them begins.  He thinks of them as he sleeps and all through school the next day.  He spaces out while he thinks which makes Rose comment, ‘are you pondering something’, which Jon quickly objects to.  Even if Rose was the best person to tell, he wasn’t sure if he was going mad and just making up the incident yesterday all up.  Instead, he kept his mouth shut and looked forward to work that day. 

That day during ‘work’ (who’s he kidding he isn’t working) he meets the other nine ghosts that he didn’t get to meet earlier. 

Nepeta was a hyperactive girl with a hat in the shape of a cat on her head.  She carried a notebook with her filled with charts and pictures of the complicated romances and relationships in her novels.  True to her love of drama novels she actively also loved real life relationships and frequently questioned John on his friends.

“So you and Rose are good friends?”  She asked.

“Yeah we all are.”  John answered as the girl smiled wide.

“That is _soo_ sweet John!”  She wrote something down with a red pen.  “I can’t wait to see you get together.”

“Wait, what!”  John protested. “N-n-no!  Rose and I are just friends.” 

The girl laughed, ignored him, and went to make a ‘shipping chart’.  (John had head of shipping, but only after delving into the Pokemon Wikia for too long).

There was also Tavros who was in a wheelchair with brown hair in the shape of an arrow.  He was shy and hesitant but quick to tell John of his love of fairy tales and Disney movies.  His fairy tales were more than revamped makes of the old boring stories, but new ones that were easy to understand.

“Do you like fairy tales?”  Tavros asked.

“Well, I did when I was younger.”

“So, uh, you don’t like them, uh, as much now?”  The boy sounded a little hurt

“I still watch Disney movies sometimes.”  John admitted, trying to cheer the boy up.  “Usually with Jade.” 

He was a bit candid in his opinions of John, but nice as well. 

Then there was Feferi.  She had beautiful black wavy hair pushed back by pink goggles she used as a headband.  Judging by the clothes she was wearing, she was richer than John twelve times over.  She was always jumping for joy over some new excitement, but was also, but was also polite and pleasant to John.  Her book was a nonfiction account of all the animals and plants of the Pacific Ocean.

“A nonfiction book?”  That sounded boring in John’s opinion.

“Yeah, I went and spent last summer on my Father’s yacht and I took pictures of all the wildlife I found and made a story about it.”  She smiled.

“That’s so cool.”  And also the most expensive thing John had ever heard.  John and his dad had spent their summer vacation at the beach for a weekend trip in a cramped motel two years ago which was all they could afford.

 The contest holders told her it was just the right amount of heart and facts which she was absolutely thrilled about. 

Always with her seemed to be a boy that looked not only like the ultimate hipster, but also the ultimate money flasher.  Eridan was just a pompous and stuck as the military novels he writes.

“Which battle did you write for the competition?”  John asked.

“The Battle of the Aisne.”  Eridan said and John was pretty sure he had never heard of it in his life.  “You probably have never heard of it.”

“World War One battle.”  Karkat later filled him in. 

John didn’t like him too much and he was pretty sure Eridan didn’t like him either. 

Gamzee, on the other hand, was nothing like that.  The homeless looking druggie looked like he had been through the jail and mental hospital track and then was spit out for not being all there in the mind.

“It’s not about where we have been or what we worked towards it is about how you apply that knowledge to the now and molds it into something that flows in the wind, you feel?”  Gamzee asked, rolling his head towards John.

“Uh-huh!”  Not in the slightest.

  He was laid back and nice and surprisingly as funny as his novels which were a mixture of poetry and short prose.  Still, there was something about him that made uneasy, it was probably the smile. 

By far the most ghost like of them all was Aradia. 

“I have a fascination with things that have passed on.”  She said.  “Do you?”

“No, I can’t really say I do.”  She smiled really big stretched out smile.

“Oh that is too bad.”  Her smile got impossible big to the point to being creepy.  “I do so love death.”

She was all over things that had died and spent her time excavating them.  Her novel was based off an archeologist who got lost in a tomb and by chapter three John was pretty sure it was the scariest book to ever be written.  Horror novels were never really his thing. 

Now, John couldn’t decide if Sollux was eccentric or just a big nerd.  He wrote a non-fiction finding of a coding paradox he had found. 

“Well, it has to do with competing actions which has been known as the phenomenon as a deadlock…”  Which is where Sollux promptly lost John but still talked for a good two minutes.

It was the thickest book and it wasn’t one John would ever read.  The boy wore glasses that had one blue lens and one red lens and shoes of all different colors, which was just odd in John’s opinion.  John wasn’t a fan of his sarcasm, but it was better than his feigned hurt attitude about the most trivial of caustic remarks. 

Then there was the crazy blind girl who hit people ‘accidently’-read: purposefully- with her her cane.  Terezi laughed a lot and made everything into a game and the first thing she asked if was if she could cut his threat.  She made John think of Dave, but more ruthless. 

“You know I illustrate all of my novels.”  Terezi said, holding out a few pieces of paper that hung about an inch from John’s face.  “I didn’t give them to the completion.”

“They are, um, something.”  John couldn’t tell a blind girl that her drawings were shit.  Were they even pictures and not just scribbles?  No, bad John!  She’s blind for goodness sake’s.  The girl laughed.  He realized he had been played when he saw her later drawing semi good drawings of dragons a little later.  She wrote mysteries that usually revolved around the highly realistic inner workings of the legal system.

Finally, Equius had big muscles, sweated a lot, wrote about mechanical dystopian worlds, spoke little and hung around Nepeta. 

“….”

“….”

That is all John knows about Equius and all that he cares to. 

So, after three hours John was well acquainted with all 12 ghosts and very behind on his work and for some reason he couldn’t even bring himself to care.  That was until his boss called and scolded him and then told him to come back the next day to do all the shit he was supposed to do the day before. 

The next day made John work at his desk, cataloging books by inserting information in the computer and a tag would be printed out to be put on the book for a never ending amount of books.  Seriously, John’s been three for three months and he hasn’t even made a dent. 

As he worked, while being teased by Vriska and Terezi, he would stop every couple minutes and just observe.  It was like taking a candid shot of a park scene, but this was a library and it was more of a video than a single photo. 

Tavros and Aradia would read and talk when they got to an interesting part of their respective books.  Nepeta would look around then color and scribble in her notebook as she then interrupted Equius to ask him a question.  Gamzee would smoke weed, which was easier to get as a ghost,  then might write something down, or not.  Sollux would use the phone he had converted into a mini computer as Feferi would ask him to look up facts about dolphins.  Eridan would read next to her, quietly planning to how to take over the world or at least take over the library, which how he would do that John had no idea.  Vriska and Terezi tried to tease Karkat, but he got mad and they moved onto John, although Kanaya would tell them that John really did need to work. 

“What do you know fussyfangs?”  Vriska batted away the other girl. 

“John, we have been talking and you passed judgment on all of us when you met us but we didn’t judge you.”  Terezi said. 

“Yeah, ready for some criticism.”  Vriska answered, sitting on the edge of John’s desk.  John was trying to ignore her, but she had raised everyone’s interest.  The other girl tilted her head to ponder. 

“I would say that it is just.”

“Alright!  I think John is naïve.”  Vriska started as she smiled as some of the other laughed. 

“I am not!”  John protested, forgetting about his work. 

“I would agree to that, but’s more like a naivetivity.”  Kanaya said. 

“Well he looks young enough to be a child.”  Rude, mean, must be Eridan.  They were the same age! 

“Eridan!  He looks our age and is obviously like a cuttlefish!” 

“A cuttlefish?”  John asked Feferi disbelieving.  How did that apply to him?

“Oh, they are so _adorable_!”  Nepeta gushed. 

“…and defenseless.”  Equius says in almost a whisper. 

“He’s not scared of us.”  Tavros pipes up. 

“Goes with the flow.”  Gamzee says and smiles and John is not sure if he actually knows what they are talking about.  “I like that.” 

“He’s also dumb as fuck.”  Karkat says and John takes it as a compliment. 

Vriska looks over her shoulder to John, flips her hair.  “You’re still naïve.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seem to be a little repetitive here, which makes me not like this chapter as much as the first, but I also have a fondness for it, so whatever!


	3. Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shadows - n., 1) a dark area or shape produced by a body coming between rays of light and a surface.

Four weeks after meeting the ghosts in the warehouse came a request from Vriska that takes John by surprise. 

“Will you take one of my books home with you?”  John looks up from his desk of work. 

“What?”  Kanaya had hold him how this whole thing works.  The ghosts are bound to one book in their genre and can only be near that book.  They can transfer books between books of the same genre by making the books touch. 

“Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase! ”  Vriska puts her book on John’s work and tries to feign innocence. 

“No.”  

“John!” 

“Fine.”  The girl smiles so wide her face threatens to split open and jumps up in excitement. 

“Yes!’   She takes a protesting John by the arm and drags him over to a copy of _Treasure Islan_ d as she touches the book and disappears in a type of smoke that wavered around like a shadow trick in the light and disappeared.  Confused, John picked up the book only for it to jiggle and talk. 

“Hey!  That feels weird.”  The book says in Vriska’s voice.  The book was _talking_.  In disbelief John dropped the book.

”Ow!”  The book screamed.  “John you doofus!”  The boy picked up the book up more gently as to not hurt Vriska any further than he already had. 

“I’m sorry!  I’m sorry!”  He apologized.  The girl laughed. 

“Let’s go!”  John bid farewell to the others who were clearly jealous of Vriska’s leaving.  When he left, he felt a touch of sadness, this would be one of the only times Vriska would leave the warehouse.  Her book prevented her from going too far away from it and she couldn’t move it herself too far.  It was decided then that John would make this the best day in Vriska’s afterlife. 

He couldn’t bring a girl home he knew, so he told his dad that he was reading a new book.  The man was proud, saying his friends’ father would absolutely love this particular book.  He picked the book up, went through it in a scan of words and started to talk while shaking the book.  The whole time John went wide eyed and silent.  He wanted to say “you’re hurting her,” but books aren’t like that and they don’t talk, well at least they didn’t before now. 

“Put me down! Goddamn, could you possibly shake my book anymore?”  Vriska’s voice sounded out.  Dad looked down at the book and shook it again.  John, on the other hand, was terrified. 

“Stop it!”  The girl sounded angry.  Dad returned the book to John, gently. 

“Subtle pranks, huh?  You’re getting better, son.  I’m going to bake cupcakes to celebrate.”  John laughed nervously as he took the book. 

“Yeah, Dad, you know me! I’m just one big prankster.”  He ran up to his room, hoping his dad didn’t notice the unconvincing tone in his voice.  He put his bag down and sat with the book in his hands. 

“I know you like to hold me John , but can I come out now?”  Quickly dropping the book on his bed, the boy stuttered. 

“W-wh-w-what?” 

“You’re putting your hands _all_ over me, John.  You’ve probably never even touched another girl.”  Vriska laughed at the beet red John as she came out of the book and appeared next to John on the bed in a quick apparition.  “You haven’t even bought me dinner or a movie!”  She laughed again and looked around the room, taking in the sights.  “Well let’s at least make the movie part happen.” 

John snorts at the very unfunny joke made by Nic Cage making Vriska laugh at John.  John had convinced his Father that he didn’t want dinner or the cupcakes and opted to sit with Vriska watching movies into the early morning.  Unlike Dave, his designated movie partner, Vriska laughed along with movie instead of at it, usually.  They laughed, but quietly so Dad couldn’t hear them. 

By three in the morning John had passed out in the middle of Deep Impact to the lulling of Morgan Freeman’s voice.  Vriska examined the boy and wondered how freaked Dad would be if she was found sleeping next to John. Putting that out of her mind she walked over to her book and disappeared with a small frown.

 The next day saw John carrying Vriska’s book to school.  This was the worst idea he had had in weeks.  She would talk randomly while in her book and appear next to other students, which freaked everyone out. 

The most embarrassing was her appearing in the boy’s bathroom.  Everyone stared at her as she waited for John by leaning against the sink and looking bored.  When John left she followed, but not until getting a guy’s number and one saying “Egbert is getting some from that?”  He sounded impressed, but John protested like the true gentlemen he was.  As soon as his back turned, Vriska gave a flirty flip of hair to the guy. 

John sat the book between him and Rose as he joined his friends for lunch.  Lightly, Rose threaded though the pages and John tried not to let his emotions play across his face.  It fooled no one. 

“Egderp?” 

“You’re acting _weird_ , John.”  Jade commented. 

“You’re weird.”  Vriska called out.  Rose stared at the book.  Jade was looking around while Dave was glancing over at John and Rose. 

“No, I’m not!”  Jade protested, louder. 

“You, are too!”  The voice again.  Jade stuck out her tongue. 

“Well, so do you.”  She got up and stomped over the lunch line. 

“Dave, go find Jade and make sure she doesn’t buy all of the honeybuns in the school in a fit of fury.”  Rose told Dave, examining the book. 

“Why would I do that?”   Dave asked, eyes not leaving the book, after catching on.  Rose’s eyes lifted and locked with Dave’s in a secret language only blonde haired Strider-Lalonde’s knew how to speak. 

“Because I asked. “  _Because I need to talk to the guilty looking John alone_.  Dave got up, begrudgingly, and followed Jade. 

“John, is there something you or the book would like to say.”  Rose’s soul piercing eyes were on him. 

“Books don’t talk Rose, don’t be silly.”   He laughed trying to distract her. 

“This one does.” 

“John, give up!  This girl has busted our secret.”  The blonde girl put down the book on the table and leafed through the pages with a ghostly tough. 

“I am Rose Lalonde.”

  “Vriska Serket, the best adventure epic writer you will ever meet.”  With that, John told the story of how he met and found the ghosts of the library warehouse.  Ears absorbing new information, Rose listened intently until he was through with his story. 

“I heard about the unfortunate accident which has taken your lives.  I supported an author who died there.” 

“Who?”  John asked, wondering if it was one of the twelve he knew.  “Wait, you read those books about witches and wizards and vampires.” 

“I do.”  The girl confirmed. 

“Was her name Kanaya?”  John asked as the very tips of Roses’ ears turned a dusty shade of pink. 

“Yes.”  Vriska burst out laughing. 

“Fussyfangs?  You must be a real fan of paranormal Romance to like her books!”  Rose’s face was still tightly controlled, but her ears wouldn’t stop turning red. 

“Paranormal Romance?  Like Twilight?”  Both John and Vriska cracked up together. 

“It is not like Twilight!”  Rose snapped, frustrated, in a rare show of emotion. 

“It’s okay Rose I know you wouldn’t read that trash.”  That day, avoiding Dave’s questions, John took Rose to work. 

“I’m back!” Vriska yelled out as she appeared in the warehouse.  There was the slightest look of shock registering on Rose’s face, but that soon went away, but by that time Vriska was pulling her towards a dark covered books with fangs dripping blood on the cover.  “Kanaya, you have a fan!” 

The slender girl appeared in a collection of shadows and was shoved roughly towards Rose by the adventurous girl.  The two girls stood awkwardly (Well, Kanaya did at least) and exchanged pleasantries and politely started to discuss books, both clearly embarrassed.  The other’s looked on.  “

John, you have to let me leave this place again.. It’s so stuffy in here!” 

“Yeah, it was better with you gone.”  Terezi commented. 

John nodded, smiling as he did so.


	4. Frustrate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frustrate - v., to prevent (a plan or attempted action) from progressing, succeeding, or being fulfilled.

The most horrible part of being a ghost is that you can’t touch others.  Sure, a ghost can touch another ghost since they are in the same realm, a kick from Eridan and high-five from Terezi still hurt Vriska, but it was the other realm that they couldn’t touch, the living one.

 Vriska has tried to touch John, a nudge, a slap, _anything_ , but her hand goes straight through his body and then he shivers like this is some horror movie cliché.  It sucks and it makes Vriska grumpy when she thinks of it.  Other than that, being a ghost is pretty damn cool. 

The adventurous girl spends her days planning her new adventure, writing her adventures, reading about adventures, harassing others, and John.  John was her spontaneity exercise for the day and she liked the days he would visit.  She treated it like no big deal, but she was tired of hanging with the same eleven kids’ day in and day out.  Her ‘charming’ attitude had made everyone agitated and unhappy to be around her, but not John.  Not John who wished to go on her ships and planes and explore.  John saw it as a movie and Vriska saw it as a book. 

It wasn’t long after meeting the blue-eyed alive human that Vriska’s plans and writing had a new element that wasn’t there before.  They started to have a bit of romance in them.  Just a dash, but it might as well have been drowning in the gooey shit for all Vriska cared.  Kanaya had been the one to point it out. 

“Space pirates?”  Kanaya asked.  “That is not your usual route.” 

“I’m mixing it up.”  Vriska shrugged as she handed her friend, her best friend, the first few chapters.  She, in turn, was greeted with some middle chapters of a vampire subway gang romance.  It made Vriska vomit, so she focused on the grammar and trudged through the ick.  They were currently occupying a small table in the back of the warehouse so to be alone. 

Halfway down with the pages, Kanaya held a small smile and Vriska didn’t understand that at all.  She also didn’t get the giddy laughter either. 

“I assume the Princess and your Lead (for the life of her, Vriska could not think of character names) will continue to flirt and fall in love?”  Kanaya asked. 

“No.” Vriska said curtly.  “There is no flirting going on.  Why would he even like her?  He just tried to slit her throat.”  Vriska Serket did _NOT_ write Romance.  The convention where she had died at told her that a little kiss could improve her novels, give it that extra edge, but she extended her middle finger to them. 

“You can’t tell?  It’s pretty obvious.”  The long haired girl scoffed. 

“Typical Romance writer, seeing love that is not there to fill the needs of your own pathetic lonely heart.”  The green eyed girl didn’t like that. 

“Ask Karkat then, he can always tell whether two characters will or will not end up with one another.”  So they did.  A quick scan and Karkat gave the story back.

 “It’s nauseatingly obvious; almost like something like Nepeta would fucking write.  They’ll probably make out and be all up in each other’s genitals by the time they get to the next planet.”  In response, Vriska threw the whole story away.  She stomped off and started planning her next novel; except now every story he wrote had a hint (not as much as the first and that had had a dash) of romantic inklings.  It made her so frustrated. 

“Why is this happening Kanaya?  Why _ME_!”  She threw herself on the ground and almost forgot to remember to not go through the foundation. 

“What recently has happened to you that changed your writing style?”  Kanaya asked. 

“John.”  Vriska answered, nothing else happening in her boring as fuck afterlife.  It was then Kanaya laughed and Vriska turned quickly.

 “What’s so fun-“Vriska stopped short, the pieces coming together. 

“Have you ever had a crush Vriska?”  Oh, no.  Oh _hell_ no!  Vriska Serket did _not_ have a crush. 

Vriska Serket did not do _ROMANCE_!

 It turned out that Vriska didn’t have a crush on John, which would be way too easy.  No, she had full out ooey-gooey icky gushy-mushy love feelings for the living boy.  Wasn’t she so _lucky_?

It was easy to ignore the feelings until John took her out of the warehouse.  Before then, she had accepted these icky feelings and her day dreams started out as adventures and landed near ninety nine cent romance (porn) novels by the end which were all about her and John.  As she spent the night, she started to notice how much she wanted to kiss the damn boy.  She was acting like a love sick idiot and she hated herself for it. 

It wasn’t until Rose and Kanaya started to interact that she noticed how futile her crush was.  Say that John actually returned her feelings, what then?  She was a fucking _ghost_!  She could never touch h him or anything like that.  Sooner or later John would leave her for something more tangible like a girl he could hold and would and then forget all about Vriska. 

Kanaya told her that wouldn’t’ be the case, but John wasn’t like Rose.  Rose was content sitting next to Kanaya and spending her time giggling over books.  John a needed to feel, to hug, to be all touch-feely, it was just who John _was_.  So Vriska kept her feelings in check.    When Dave and Jade were introduced she saw her own emotions sketch themselves across Terezi’s face as she interacted with Dave.  The two girls finally had something to talk about that wasn’t putting them at each other’s ‘throat’. 

And then when the next sleepover at John’s house happened, they watched another movie.  John was very absorbed into the flick but sitting next to him, Vriska felt frustrated as she tried to grab John’s hand over and over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really can't stay away from Sadstuck


	5. Headache

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headache - n., A thing or person that causes worry or trouble/ a problem

John unlocked the door to the warehouse six months to the day that he had met the ghosts for the first time.  It was a Tuesday afternoon and he was yawning as the key clicked and the door opened, he was not ready for the sight. 

Most of the shelves of books and boxes had been taken and now all of the shelves were barren.  The whole warehouse of books was devoid of books.  It was definitely not like this two days ago. 

There was a woman there, his boss, waiting for him.  John was having a panic attack.  The books were gone, _gone_!  This meant his friends were gone, all twelve of them vanishing from his life just as quickly as they came. 

“John.”  His boss walked over to him in her sleek skirt suit and clicking heels, her cigarette pipe not far from her hand.  She was known to be cold as snow by her colleagues, all businesslike and unfriendly.

“You’ve been in charge of this warehouse for a couple of months, my this must be a surprise to see the warehouse in this state.”  She coughed like a lady from the dust.  John called that the understatement of the year.

“Where did all the books go?”  John asked, hoping for a place he could track down his friends.  They could be anywhere, or worse, separated from each other.

“Most were moved to the new warehouse just a couple streets down, the main one that the whole city uses.  Some were donated to schools and I think one went to an old folk’s home.”  The woman put a finger to her mouth, thinking.  “You’ll move to the new warehouse to continue your new work.”  John wasted no time.

“Where?”  John arrived at the new warehouse in five minutes.  It was easily ten times the size of the old warehouse.  He walked inside to find millions of books all waiting to be processed.  It was a dusty and dark with flickering lights and a feel of being haunted, which sent a chill down John’s back.  John realized as he ventured through the new place that it was the old central library that had been closed for years.  He used to visit this place with this dad when he was very young. 

On arrival, his boss met him as she gave him details of his new job.  No one apparently worked in this warehouse either.  John would still be the only employee, which was pretty lucky considering another employee would mean he would never see the ghosts, if they were still here. 

There were many people in the warehouse who were piling books into the shelves from large trucks, so John went through to look for the books he thought would be his friends.  He went with a box and the excuse that it would be easier to group certain books for his job and went on a search. 

He only remembered for sure that Vriska’s current book was ‘ _Treasure Island_ ’, Equius’ was ‘ _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’_ , (Such a weird title that it was just begging to be remembered), ‘ _Peter Pan_ ’ was Tavros’, and ‘ _Pride and Prejudice’_ was Karkat’s.  For everyone else he only had a general idea of their current book.  They did like to change so often…

He did know that Sollux was in a book about the coding language ‘Perl’, Aradia was in a ‘ _Goosebumps_ ’ like novel, and Feferi was in a dolphin book.  Kanaya was lost in a cover of dark backgrounds and fangs among the millions of ‘ _Twilight’_ covered books.  In an hour, after all of the books had been moved in and everyone left, he had gathered over a hundred books and he set the box down as the last worker left.  All these books were giving John a headache.

“John, these books are squishing me!”  It was Nepeta’s voice, coming from his box.

“Sorry.”  Tavros.  Nepeta was trapped under a small copy of ‘Peter Pan’ encrusted in silver pages.

“Thanks for, uh, rescuing me and, um, all.”  The boy thanked.  Others started to appear with John realizing that he had only managed to actually rescue Nepeta and Tavros out of his one hundred books.

Aradia was in the last box brought in with Equius.  Feferi was on the whole other side of the warehouse, her having to walk a good five minutes over to John and then again to lead him back to her book, only for her to get lost for a bit.  Kanaya was in one of the ‘ _Twilight_ like shelves’, the sixth out of twelve to be exact.

“I thank you John.” Kanaya formally thanked as she walked back to the group with John as he carried her book.   “It is kind of you to rescue me from all of the _Twilight_ books.”

“It was kind of like an adventure.  It wasn’t a very fun adventure; I was hoping this warehouse would be haunted or something.”  Aradia lamented as Kanaya and John rejoined the group.

“Aradia, you are haunting this warehouse.”  John answered.

 “Oh.”

Only half of the ghosts ended up in the warehouse.  A look at where the boxes were going from a list from one of worker’s revealed that everyone else had been taken to a school.

“What are we going to do?  They are going to be so scared and alone.”  Nepeta said.  John searched through the papers in the room he worked in to look for the names of the school. 

Well, that’s convenient.

“It’s my school.” 

The next day, despite wanting to break into the school that night, he waited until school to start his quest to retrieve the books.  His first class bumped him into Rose as he enlisted her help.  He considered telling Dave and Jade, but he didn’t know how they would handle the news of ghosts yet. 

Skipping second period with Rose, the two students went to the library.  Everyone at school used old hall passes to skip, so they wouldn’t get in trouble.  The library was empty except for the librarian.  “Eridan, Sollux, Terezi, Gamzee, Karkat, Vriska!” John whispered/called.  No response from the books.

“SHHHHH!”  The librarian shushed.  The shush was lazily done, just like how the librarian did all of her work.  Sheepishly John apologized.  This whole thing was giving him a pounding in his head.  This worrying couldn’t be good for his health.

“John?”  John and Rose froze then walked towards the voice.

“Yeah, it’s me!”

“They’ve put me in nonfiction!  The nerve!”  Terezi’s voice.  “I’m Sherlock Holmes!”

‘It’ll be alright.”  Another voice form a shelf down called.  John picked up Terezi’s book, a thick rendition of ‘ _The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes’_ as Rose went to the other voice.  “Poetry is nonfiction and fiction, whatever they want to motherfucking put it.”  Gamzee….  Rose held Gamzee’s book and John held Terezi’s.

“This library has no respect for the Dewey Decimal System.”  A lisp came from the educational section of the small library, also known as the part that no one used.  “I’m supposed to be in the 005s but I’m in the 600s near agriculture.”  John went and picked up Sollux.  Rose and John looked around but no other voices appeared.  They laid the books on a table in the back.

“Do you know where Eridan, Karkat, and Vriska are?”

“No.”

“Can’t say that I do.”  Gamzee said.

“We kind of lost them.”  Terezi admitted.

“Are you guys okay?” Rose asked, knowing this must have been a bad experience for them.

“Okay? I’m _traumatized_.”  Sollux snapped.

“Wow, John, way to interrogate a trauma victim before even asking how he is doing.”  Terezi laughs her famous crackling laugh.  The boy sputtered.  “Thank you Rose for being so inconsiderate.”

“You are welcome.”  Rose started to walk towards the librarian as John sputtered a protesting remark.

“Do you have a list of books each teacher is requesting?”  The librarian was playing solitaire on a computer from 1995.

“Why?”  She asked in a monotone voice.

“Survey.”  Rose lied.

“Fine.”  The woman took her nice sweet time to come back from the back room with the list.  Rose and John looked at the list back near the back table so that the three book people tried to talk all at once.

“European History: _The Battle of Hastings_.” Rose read.

“The douchebag is probably there.”  Sollux said.  “Leave him; he’s probably thrilled to be stuffed at the bottom of some kids’ backpack.”

“ _Pride and Prejudice_ , literature with Mr. Vagabond”

“Isn’t that your next class John?”  Rose asked.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll find them then.” He went through the list with no ‘Treasure Island’ being found.

“There she is.”  Terezi said as next to World History class.

“ _Travels_?”  John read.   “She changed books?” 

The boy didn’t know that.  Vriska was usually _so_ excited to change books that it was the first thing she would tell John when he walked through the door to work.

“Of course, we all do.  She changed like weeks ago; you should of known that John.”  The girl said disapprovingly before laughing.

“We only have ten minutes until the bell rings.”  Rose reminded them.

“We’ll get Eridan first, then Vriska.”  They walked to the European History class and immediately found a box of books outside the classroom, waiting to be taken in and distributed to eager  (read: not eager) to read even more than required students. 

“Eridan?” John asked the box, opening it.  There was no answer.

“Asshole?”  Sollux called.

“Oh my God get me out of this crowded, dark place immediately!”  One of the books commanded.  John picked up the book that shook as it spoke. He was currently holding Gamzee and tried to hold the books without making them touch.  That would be awkward.  They would touch and all…

“Do _not_ get me near that ape!”

“Right back at ya motherfucker.”  His locker was the next stop on the list, knowing he couldn’t hold any more books and they were all already arguing with each other to keep their distance.  With an apology, John put all four books properly spaced form each other in his locker.  He could still hear them as they argued and screamed as he closed his locker shut.  

Rose scurried off to class as John went to literature.  His teacher talked before handing out the books a very long time, enough time for John to almost forget all of his troubles and fall asleep.   A small girl next to John was the one to get Karkat.  It was obvious when the book twitched as she felt the pages.  The girl put the book down for enough time for John to sneakily replace the books, his for hers, his prankster abilities becoming useful.

“John, I have just been felt up like a girl in a club by a drunk shady man or Eridan, take your pick.  This is making me uncomfortable in more ways than not.  Also, stop touching me.”  Karkat complains as John quickly drops the book.

“Karkat, books don’t talk.”  John reminded him.  There were some stares as John, known as the friendly kid with some weird kinks.  This was not helping that reputation, talking to a book and all.

“They can go suck it.”  Karkat answered.

“How are you romance, again?”  John whispered the stares started to lower in number.

“John, I possess more romance in the cartilage of my pinky toe than you do in your whole goddamn body plus your precious Con Air and Avatar combined.”

“That’s silly.”  Nothing could be more romantic than Con Air and Avatar combined.  Karkat stayed quiet the rest of class as John stuffed his book into his book bag.  The next class would be lunch, but John still needed to get Vriska.

As soon a class let out John set out to the World History class that was reading ‘ _Travels’_ by Marco Polo.  The class was being kept back for a couple extra minutes so John waited outside the door.  He hoped that the books had not been distributed yet.  As the students filed out John heard a call.

“John!”  Vriska!  She was being held by a boy as he left the class.  The boy was tall and lanky with headphones and greasy hair.  His clothes were dirty and dark as he wore a grey hat and he walked sloppily through the hallways. 

John pretended to be a spy as he followed the boy.  The grey hat almost disappeared in a sea of students but headed to his locker and opened it with ease.  Without a care, he threw, _threw_ , the book inside and closed his locker.  That had _got_ to hurt.

How were they going to be able to get into a locker?

“Karkat!?!  What should I do?”  John exclaimed as he stood near the locker.

“I don’t even know what the fuck is going on!  I can’t see shit from this backpack.”  He answered.  The hallways were clearing out and John looked like he was talking to no one.

“I got it!  You can go through the locker and get the book!”

“John, are you stupid?  I can’t make the book go through the locker door.”

“So what should I do?”

“Get someone who can crack a lock.”

“Like Dave!”  John ran off towards his usual lunch spot.  He bypassed Jade and Rose and went straight up to his best friend.

“Dave, I need you to open a locker for me.”  Dave, eyes hidden like always behind his idiotic glasses, turned to John.

“What’s in it for me?”  Not even asking why, that was the Dave John knew.

“The pride of opening a locker that is some other kid’s?”  John answered not really knowing the answer.  Rose quietly put her face in her hand as a sign of exasperation.  Worst excuse ever.

“Right on Egbert.”  Dave answered as the two headed to the locker.

“Is this is a normal occurrence?”  Karkat asked.  John ignored him as Dave looked at him curiously.

“You’re hiding something John.”  The sunglasses man said as he opened the locker with ease, a good ear for the slightest change in sound.  John grabbed the book.

“What’s so special about the book?”  He asked as he scrounged through the boy’s locker, scoring about ten dollars and a pack of gum (which is worth about ten dollars in a school full of bubble blowing brats).

“I just need it.”  John said.  Dave looked at him.

“Whatever you say, bro.”  The two walked back to lunch, letting John deposit Karkat and Vriska’s book in his locker, properly spaced from the other four books as well. 

The rest of the day carried on normally before John was back at his locker at the end of the day.  As he pondered as to when he should tell Dave about the ghosts he also pondered how he was to get all six books back to the warehouse.  After a quick mental debate he threw all the books in his book bag and he heard screams of protest and sprinted to his car and put the books out of his bag and onto the back seat.  There was a lot of yelling.

“John!  Ew, that was so disgusting!”  Vriska exclaimed.

“I feel violated.” Eridan stated.  The group of six looked at each other than yelled at John for putting them in such positions.  John ignored them as they took form in his car.  None of them looked too bad.  They looked roughed up from being manhandled, their clothes a little in disarray and some of their hair.  But they were in one piece and together, so John could really care less about any of that.  He drove to the warehouse and two by two took the books into their home.

‘It’s so big.”  Vriska commented on the new warehouse.  There were reunions with the other six ghosts.  There were hugs and thanks and complaints.  It made John feel warm and happy as he watched them all.  They thanked him as well, some more begrudgingly than others.  Vriska appeared next to him as John watched the rest of the ghosts.

“So, I might have to thank you for rescuing me.”  She said.  “But if anyone asks I rescued you.  A boy rescuing a girl?  That is such a clichéd adventure story.”

“You’re the one that is a book.”  John replied.

“Right.”  The girl leaned over slightly and kissed the boy’s cheek or at least where she thought the boy’s cheek was.  He couldn’t feel it, but he was pretty sure of what just happened.  It was quick but he turned the color of pomegranate at the attempt.  She got up and walked away.

“Just remember I saved you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson: The adventure novel.  
> Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Phillip Dick: This is the book the classic sci-fi movie Blade Runner was based off of. I never read it but I do sure love the title.  
> Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie: A boy who never grows up and kidnaps children to keep him company in his dream world.  
> Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: The quintessential romance novel between Elizabeth Benet and Mr. Darcy  
> Travels by Marco Polo: You know that game Marco Polo? That is this book.  
> Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The world’s most popular detective.  
> The Battle of Hastings: This is a real battle, but a fake book. It sounded like a history book so I just added it.  
> Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: Do I even have to say?


	6. Complete

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Complete – adj. to the greatest extent or degree

 

John drives to work in his crappy car from what he has saved up from work plus a little from his Dad.  Today is Saturday and he and his friends don’t have work or school.   It’s currently the anniversary of when John first met the ghosts in the library that one fateful afternoon while working at the warehouse.  It may have only been a year, but John felt like he had known these people for years.  He never dreamed of having so many friends and definitely not ghosts friends at that. 

The inclusion of Dave, Rose, and Jade had make things even better.  Dave had made good friends with Terezi and Tavros, while Jade had made friends with Nepeta and Feferi.  Rose had made a more than friendly advance towards Kanaya, but also had bonded a bit intellectually with Aradia. 

As the one with a new car, John is the one who has to pick up his friends.  Rose sits next to him so that Dave and Jade can sit next to each other.  Apparently Nepeta had ‘shipped’ them and she made them happen.  John was happy for them and had helped Nepeta get them together (so what if it was just so Nepeta would stop trying to get him with Rose together). 

He never saw Dave and Jade as something more than friends before Nepeta had told him, but in hindsight it was the most obvious thing.  It wasn’t until he overheard Karkat talking to Sollux about how Terezi liked Dave did he realize how dense he was.  That was pretty obvious too and John had just totally overlooked it.  John vowed to become less dense after that.  It was a futile vow. 

It was a small celebration.  Everyone was happy and smiling (okay, well, those who usually smiled, smiled unlike John’s emotionless brick wall of a best friend).  It was a happy occasion.  John teased Karkat, until getting a bucket of water thrown on him by Feferi and Jade.  He put trick candles on the small cake and laughed with Vriska very hard as Jade continued to try and blow them out even after Rose and Dave just threw the candles at John. 

He didn’t catch the terrified looks of the ghosts as they stared at the flames in a horrified manner.

Them being together, all sixteen of them, felt so good to John.  It made him feel happy and complete. He wouldn’t trade any of them for anything.  John wasn’t sure the last time something had made him this unbelievably happy.    Even among all that, John felt something odd.  He felt something missing.  Not sure of the feeling he was feeling, he asked Rose about it near the end of the party. 

“You’re just musing over the fact that we and the ghosts can never truly be together forever.  We will grow up and away and old, but they will not John.”  With that morbid thought, Rose went to talk to Kanaya, leaving John feeling outright horrible.  He pushed the negative thought away because that is who John is.  The party ended and the friend piled into the John’s car.

He had work the next day, sometime in the afternoon, so he had gone to sleep relatively later into the night.  That was until he received a phone call at one o’clock that night.  It was his boss, which John thought was so weird.

“Hello?”  John said groggily into the phone, seconds ago sleeping.

“John!”  The woman exclaimed, something John had never known his boss to ever do.  “We need help at the warehouse and I swear you are one of the only people who cares about this place.”

“It’s one in the morning.”  John said as he put his glasses on.

_“The warehouse is on fire.”_

John was pretty sure he never got dressed and onto the warehouse premises in such a short amount of time.  He didn’t even stop to answer his worried father’s questions.  He broke every driving rule he was pretty sure existed, but he made it.  The building was ablaze, at least half of it.  He saw the fireman, police, and his boss at the scene.

Oh, God.  They were all going to _die_.

“John.”  His boss said as John ran over to her.  “It’s gone.  We are trying to save some of the books in the back.  They need help.”

“How?”  John’s voice faltered.  He couldn’t choke out the words.  This was by far worse than when he had to go collect his friends from his school.  They were going to die.  He knew it, he just _knew_ it.

“They are saying hooligans.”  She said, eyeing the police.  Clearly, she wasn’t saying something.  John didn’t stick around.  He needed to see if he could save any of them.  He saw quite a few workers saving most of the books.  John started to help near the back.

It was hot as hell and it made the boy sweat like nothing else.  No matter what, he was going to save what he can.  He was going to just have to hope that some of them were saved.  He didn’t have time to frantically just search for them. 

The only time he had he used to desperately put books into a truck, a task he work arduously at for so long that he was in danger of over exhausting himself that had been put around by one of the workers.  The truck barely had anything in it.  There were not as many workers as this warehouse needed.  They weren’t even going to save one percept of this warehouse.  He had barely saved barely any books when he noticed the fire coming towards him.

“We have to stop!”

“Pull back!”  One worker put a hand of John’s shoulder when John refused to stop working.

“It’s gone….”  The worker’s eyes welled up as the flames consumed the warehouse.  “All those amazing books.”

As John was escorted away from the flames he searched the truck for his friends.  After the moving of books scare he had memorized their titles and always asked if they had changed.  His small spark of hope vanquished as the truck held none of the titles of his friends.

Most of the workers went home at least after the flames had been put out by the firemen.  The building had collapsed in parts and was all charred black.  The zone had been declared unsafe for everyone.  It didn’t matter to John as he just sat on his car even when everyone else had left.

Not sure if his voice could work, he sent messages to Jade, Rose, and Dave telling them what happened.  From the looks of it they were still sleeping.  By the time the sun broke through the horizon John had decided to go into the death warehouse.

Most of it was all ash and dust.  It made John cough as he used his shirt as a makeshift ventilator.  Books stood on shelves, completely gone.  If they were touched, they disintegrated under John’s hand.  He looked, but he saw nothing as he wondered through the graveyard of ash.

He sat in the middle of the mess and allowed himself to cry.  Curled up tight, he realized he was never going to see any of his friends again.  He stayed like that for a while until he felt a chill go through his shoulder.

“Hey.”  A voice said, small and weak.  John got up and turned around, startled.  There stood Vriska, her clothes frayed and her hair smoking.  Her arms were badly burnt and there was a patch of skin on her cheek that was ungodly black from the clouting of blood.  Her skin was the color of ash, but it didn’t matter.  She was there.

“Vriska!”  His first instinct was to hug her, but he couldn’t as went through her.  She looked a little hurt at the attempt.  Tears still running down his face, he was sure he looked like a mess, he smiled.  “I’m so glad you’re okay.”  The girl forced a small smile, one so forced that it was just sad that she even tried.

“John, I’m dying.”  She turned from him as she started to walk down one of the aisles.  It was a quick walk before she stopped as John chased after her.  “By _fire_!  Isn’t that just ironic?”

“Vriska!  You’re not going to _die_!”  John said as they came to a book on a burnt out desk.  It was so burnt that John couldn’t even read the title.  The way Vriska looked at it though; John knew it was her book.  “Just wait here, I’ll go get a new one!”

“John, it’s too late for that.”  The corner of the book fell into a nonexistent state.  The image Vriska was projecting started to fade a bit, like a hologram losing connection.  She sounded dead, lifeless.  She turned to him, eyes full of something that John could only describe as complete devastation.

“No, it’s not!”  John cried.  He didn’t want to lose her.  Oh God, he didn’t want to _lose_ her.

“Promise me something.”  Vriska closed her eyes.

“You’re _not_ going to die!”  The adventurous girl faded away into the book as John crouched around the book.  As gently as he could he touched it, only for it to disintegrate into pieces of ash around his hand.  He cried out before curling into himself and sobbing.

_“Don’t forget me.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, this was supposed to have a happy ending. But then it didn't. God, I love this story way too much.

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a series of related one shots based off word prompts. I got this idea when remembering two childhood memories. The Page Master was one of my favorite movies as a kid and I highly recommend that to everyone and it was about a kid who found books that represented their genre (Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror). The other was Zatch Bell the TV show and how Mamodos were bound to their books and died when their books were destroyed. So I merged the ideas.


End file.
